This is one of those impromptu postings, not part of my agenda for winter. There are always things that provoke me to write. This time it started with the ugly 2024 political season, where Donald Trump made gender reassignment surgery one of his triune themes, along with the economy and the boarder. How do I know? I watched many of Trump’s rallies, always hoping he had had a change of heart and quit lying but was always disappointed.

The mantra Trump repeated, which of course is a bold-faced lie, that you drop your kids off at school and the school, without any permission from the parent, presto, does gender reassignment surgery. His team said he was saying that metaphorically, but his supporters said they believed it was true. Then there were the millions of dollars spend on an ad where Kamala Harris was supporting gender reassignment surgery for inmates. That was ordered by the courts, and Trump also followed that order as well. But Harris miscalculated by saying that out loud and creating a soundbite for Trump.

This issue was not insignificant as I can say, with some certainty, that it alone pushed Trump over the finish line for his narrow win. This issue resonated with both the evangelical and the Hispanic communities, who have “traditional family values.”

But that was not enough for me to write about it. The final straw for me was the election of Sarah McBride as the first transgender person in Congress and the response by people  such as congresswoman Nancy Mace and now, the speaker, Mike Johnson. Nancy Mace, who previously had been somewhat “tolerant” of LGBTQ rights, more so than many other Republicans. Nancy came out aggressively against allowing Sarah to use the women’s bathrooms in the capital. Quickly Mike Johnson, who has the power over rules in the capital, sided with her and passed an official rule against allowing “him” from using the women’s bathroom.

Now, of course this is political. The backbone of the Republican party is the religious (which I will define in a minute). They know that discriminating against gays wins them points with the voters and increases their chances of re-election. I know that Nancy has attended the same evangelical mega church as a friend of mine in South Carolina, and that friend is a good guy, to the core. So, I can’t say she is reflecting her church’s view, while Mike is clear that he is speaking from his religious orientation.

So, the final blow for me, to compel me to write, was when Mike Johnson was interviewed on TV and he said, (my paraphrase) “Because I’m a Christian, I must follow God’s law and God created us male or female and it is a violation of his law to try and change that. ‘Sarah’ is still a man in God’s eyes, and I support God’s view.”

To segue with my last post, it is my sense of empathy for Sarah that I must write and the clear mandate from scripture to stand for justice and kindness. I assume that in the capital there are private bathrooms, and some compassionate congressperson will allow Sarah to come and pee in their bathroom. But just think of the hardship this could cause, and not to mention, the personal humiliation.

Religion

I’m going to make a bold statement, which got me in a lot of trouble last year, and that is, I hate religion. I defined what I meant then and I will again today and if you want to misconstrue what I’m saying, that’s on you.

I do not call all people who follow a particular faith, “religious.” In my eyes, I define religion as a complex human-deprived system for one purpose, increasing one’s feeling of piety. The sharpest tool (psychologically) for increasing one’s sense of piety is comparisons. Religion is therefore very competitive.

I will speak about religious evangelicalism as I know that world best. We demonized and compared ourselves collectively to non-Christians, we are being far better than them, God loving us much more. In our world, the worst of non-Christians were gays, abortionist, and Satan worshipers. But we were also ruthless about competing to see who was the most “spiritual,” within our own evangelical world as well. I am just speaking honestly.

I’m sure someone could apply my own standards to myself, saying that I now feel more pious because I’m not a fraud as I used to be. I do a lot of soul searching and I don’t think that’s the case. I am profoundly curious about the world, especially science, but I am not that way for show, it is from the heart. Additionally, I almost always assume that other people are far better Christians than me, making huge sacrifices in their time and talents, while I live as a selfish hermit . . . almost. I am very happy being the lessor of followers of Christ.

Transsexuals

Back to the topic, but with that background, I hope I will make my case clearer. Religious evangelicals hate homosexuals and especially transgender people.

I was speaking to one of my old evangelical friends a few years ago and after he was sermonizing (and he is a pastor) how devoted he is to Donald Trump, the greatest American Christian in history, I happened to say something about an interview I saw on CNN, and this is how the conversation went;

Friend: “CNN, that place is disgusting. I would never watch it. They employe homosexuals, such as Anderson Cooper. I don’t watch anything on TV that has homosexuals or transexuals. Drag queens make me want to vomit.”

Me: “Oh, so you hate gays.”

Friend: “I do not! It is God who hates gays.”

Do you see the irony in this story? I have written before that there are a hierarchy of instructions given by the Bible, going from the simplest to the most complex, like a pyramid. At the apex is the simple notion from Micah 6:8 ; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

The next level are the ten commandments. One could argue that the ten commandments were specifically for the nation of Israel, but I think it is safe to say, it could apply to everyone. Just as a reminder, it labels adultery, lying, greed, idolatry as these top-tier sins. The more complex examples of how to live comes from the teachings of Christ. Look up his sermons. But in summary, it is about forgiveness, peace, love, and against pretentiousness and religion.

Now I will make another bold statement that has generated some hate mail, but it is factual. The Bible is silent on transexual issues. The religious will lump it under homosexuality, but it is quite different. It is not I as a man love another man, but I was born in a man’s body, but I feel deeply that I’m a woman.

I will come back to homosexuality in the end but let me focus on the transexual.

Even with empathy, I cannot understand how a transexual feels. But it must be awful to feel trapped in the body of the opposite gender. The religious assumes that this is an evil moral choice and therefore they are morally superior to the transsexual. I would say with confidence that for the vast majority it is not a choice. Most of the ones I know about, tried with all their hearts to be the gender of their physical body.

The religious will also say, “God doesn’t make mistakes.” Well, then, they don’t live in reality. We all live in a broken world where things are not perfect. God didn’t give me cancer to punish me, but one gene, whose job it is to fold a protein a billion times to make antibodies, mutated (a mistake), to make an erroneous protein that wants to kill me.

I have two grandsons born with six toes on each foot. Their parents, rightly so, had surgery to remove the extra toes so that they could wear normal shoes. I’ve had other friends born with terrible birth defects that required a long series of surgeries and physical therapy, just to walk, or roll.

No, let’s carry this to the extreme.  If you really believe it is sin to change your body from the way “God has made it,” then, never have surgery for any reason, even due to injuries or wear and tear. For then, it is God who made your body wear badly (if you are an honest Christian fatalist, which I am not). Do not take any medication. Die at age 40. I must stop my cancer treatments and die a horrible death. Stop dying your hair. Stop using things to help you lose weight. Stop applying make up because God didn’t really want you to look that pretty. I understand why the Jesus of Galilee raised his voice when he screamed hypocrites!

Religion is about comparisons and personal piety. It isn’t about sin, or they would not make a habitual adulterer, liar, man of greed, their personal human savior. For someone like me, who has no homosexual tendencies and who feels comfortable in their own gender-specific body, it is easy to make those who are different the scapegoat, the other for which you can condemn and thus make yourself and your subculture feel pious.

This is too long to address homosexuality, which of course is a totally different issue. I will say that the Bible is silent on gender dysphoria and the instruction of the Bible is silent on homosexuality. The Bible is silent on abortion, when you are honest about it. The Bible is silent on many of the issues that the religious make a priority. But it is clear on the laws and directions I’ve mentioned above.

Yes, Paul makes reference to homosexuality. If you are interested in a very deep discussion about what the Bible really says about homosexuality, rather going down another rabbit hole, I will suggest that you  watch this video (below) where two Bible manuscript experts try to decipher what the Bible really says about the topic.

Sarah, forgive us.

Peace,

Mike